Mike Woodson Interview

"I think as a coaching staff to go back to our offensive system and tweak some things is extremely important."

Really, though, that'll just be something I use as a callback a week into the season, won't it?

Second, the usually reliable Mr. Smith asks a bizarre question:

Q. Guys who had sporadic roles or production during the regular season seemed to come to life in the playoff for you. Zaza Pachulia and Marvin Williams both played crucial roles in the playoffs, as did rookie point guard Acie Law IV, albeit in limited action. How do you build on what they did in the postseason going forward?

Zaza Pachulia had a nice playoff series but Marvin Williams? As covered here earlier, Atlanta was outscored by 27.6 points per 100 possessions while Marvin was on the court in the playoff loss to the Celtics. To be generous, Marvin did play an important role in Boston winning the series.

Woodson's answer to the above question brings up all my mixed feelings about Marvin (not to mention the head coach's unique syntax):

Marvin building on his last two years and maybe taking that next big leap in terms of getting where Joe [Johnson] and Josh Smith and Bibby are in terms of being a consistent scorer has to take place. Marvin has to step into that role where he can be that third guy or even that second guy some nights that we rely on night in and night out.

I contend that the Hawks can't give up hope w/r/t Marvin Williams turning into a useful offensive player. However, Joe Johnson, Josh Smith, Al Horford, Josh Childress, and Mike Bibby are each already useful offensive players. Smith and Horford need more touches. Childress needs more playing time. Hell, Acie Law IV, who himself needs to turn into a useful offensive player, needs more playing time and more touches with the second unit.

I'm all for Marvin working to improve his offensive game. I'm not for wasting more offensive possessions in the 2008-09 season on Williams awkwardly posting up or attempting futile, clumsy moves off the dribble just because the organization wishes he were a different player. In general, though, were this organization to begin to make decisions based on an honest assessment of the reality of its situation that would be a significant step forward.

7 comments:

Anonymous
said...

Ha, good luck with that. This organization and everyone involved with running it, is/are completely retarded and are obviously inept at making logical basketball decisions. The Woodson extension would be my exhibit A. It really pains me to know that we have a great collection of talent going to waste here and that I will have to watch their careers slowly wither away under this current management and coaching staff.

If Marvin could extend his mid range jumper and become a decent 3 pointer shooter, he could be a useful player (although better as a sub than a starter). Since he has shown no interest in doing that, I'd rather just trade him and let some other team try to salvage his career. Imagine how many more wins this team might have had if Childress had started all season instead of Marvin. They would have likely gotten home court in the first round which very likely would have led to them advancing to the second and possibly beyond.

"To be generous, Marvin did play an important role in Boston winning the series".Ha! Now we see why Joe and Marvin were really the only two players to endorse Woody. Joe gets to have all the touches and never take any of the heat when the team loses. And Marvin gets to keep playing extended minutes while contributing almost nothing when his jump shot isn't falling. That's the life!

That deal couldn't go through until sometime in July due to free agent rules. Supposedly that's what scuttered the possibility of Chicago trading some combination of players including either Gordon or Deng to Miami for the second pick. There could also have been something about Hinrich being a Base Year Compensation player complicating that scenario also.

Beasley worries me (in terms of being a franchise player) in that he appears to be content to shoot jump shots when well-guarded. That, and he seems to be closer to the childish rather than the ruthless end of the asshole spectrum.